NEW ZEALAND ABSENTEE LANDOWNERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 288, 4 December 1889, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND ABSENTEE LANDOWNERS.

In these times, when there is an apparenb scarcity of the circulating medium, but an astonishing and highly satisfactory increase in the value of our exports, the ordinary citizen mueb occasionally wonder' how ife is the latter doee not materially and appreciably affect the improved circulation of the former. The increased value of New Zealand's eje ports in j 1888-89 compared with the previous year ia no lees than £1,586,254. This is truly an enormous increase, more especially as that iucroaee has developed itsolf in times of murked industrial depression ; and during a period when very many of our able-bodied population have left our shores. The total declared value of the whole of the export from this colony in the past year was close upon eight million pounds sterling. The value of the colonial produce consumed -within its boundaries it is impossible to calculate, but the inference is plain thab our population haa maintained itself in more or less comfortable and in many instances luxurious circumstances, and yet over and above this it has sent produce of the value of eight millions sterling out of the country. The question naturally arises, has this greatiwealth gone. to > ..and why is it that,, the cplony.. is. ,iiQ& JHfcf, appreciably benefited by Its production? We do not deny for the great nWftfftfl , resources of the colony which supply u§ with such abundant wealth, enable the population to exist fairly comfortably, and above all to honestly meet the interest on the crushing debt that ha» been laid upon our shoulders : but highly satisfactory as are those circumstances, still the wealth produced and exported should, if Our affaire- were a little more wisely ordered, be of greater benefit to the whole community than it is at present. ' In analysing the export returns we find that the article of wool alone contributesnearly half the value of the whole export of the colony. It approaches very close to four million pounds sterling. Now, the fact of the matter is this, that the value of the great bulk of this export eoes into the pockets of a few people, very many of whom are permanent absentees. There are according to a Government official return, no less than 1,100 permanent absentee property ( owners "vingr abroad upon wealth produced in New Zealand. Theeeabsenteesare highly favoured in every way. They entirely escape our Customs duties, which the wisdom of our has made theprincipaleouroe of our national revenue. The property tax, from come mysterious cause, only very slightly aflects them, and their incomes being chiefly derived from wool grown on the sheepp backs in New Zealand and feeding on New Zealand pastures, are not in any way affected by industrial depression in the colony. They hold possession of vast areas of the noil of New Zealand, upon which they employ only a few shepherds. Whether the depression in New Zealand be serious, and deeply affecting the resident citizens, or whether commercial matters are prosperous and healthy, the price of the wool from which the absentees obtain their incomes is in no way affected by it; that price is regulated by the London market, As an illustration of the large incomes derived from this source, we need only draw our readers' attention to one or two extracts from recent London papers. " Truth " for instance flays in its money article :—"lf you care to go in for a New Zealand concern I am told that Robert Campbell and Sons (Limited) are likely to pay a good dividend for this year. This is a concern t owning sheep farms stocked with 300,000 sheep and large tracts of freehold land in New Zealand.' Here we see a proposed investment for foreign capital strongly recommended by an influential English paper, in which dindends are to be obtained from our valuable export, , wodl, and which dividends; will "dearly go to and permanently, remain in the Old: Country, - * 4.1. * ™ Another item of English news is that Mr Tollemache, an absentee New Zealand propetty holder, is in ill-health, and the paragraph states that this gentleman-draws income from New Zealand of £75,000 per annum. These are only isolated instances taken haphazard, as _taey are prominently brought forward in our English news,- but when to these are added 1,100 others, which is the number officially accounted for as permanently absent from the colony, is it any wonder that notwithstanding our enormous exports, the colony itself does not benene by them as it should do ? If a substantial tax were put upon the land held by these absentees, material relief would be given to the resident population, who are now bearing an unfair share of the burden caused by loan expenditure from which land-ownere have chiefly benefited.